The Internet and World-Wide-Web have changed the way organizations conduct business. Virtually every organization has a web-site that provides information about the organization and a description of the goods and/or services an organization may offer. As is known in the art, a “web-site” is group of related mark-up language documents and associated graphics and multi-media files, scripts, and databases, etc. that are served up by a server on the World-Wide-Web via the Internet. Business organizations also provide an electronic commerce (e-commerce) interface that allows users to purchase goods and/or services from such organizations.
There are many different type of web-sites on a spectrum ranging from very simple to very complex. Designing, implementing and deploying a web-site requires knowledge of markup languages such as Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML), eXtensible Markup Language (XML), programming languages such as JAVA, C++, C#, computer graphics functionality, multi-media functionality, etc. A knowledge of communications protocols such as Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP), Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), Internet Protocol (IP), e-mail protocols such as Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), e-commerce protocols, encryption and other security protocols and many other types of protocols for various kinds of web functionalities.
Web-sites are searched for a wide variety of electronic information. Search engines such as Google, Lycos, Yahoo, etc. auction sites such as Ebay, news sites, and blog or other search sites or a browser, depending on settings, will highlight in a different color via a hyperlink search results that have been reviewed previously. However, such sites or browsers do not eliminate the results altogether from the results, causing a user to have to differentiate which highlighted items the user was interested in and which items the user was not interested in. Such search engines also do not transfer the highlighted results from computer to computer or user to user or login to login. They also do may not retain highlighted previously reviewed sites for any period of time.
There have been attempts to solve some of the problems associated with managing information items retrieved from search engines, electronic auctions and other sources. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,850,934, entitled “Adaptive search engine query,” that issued to Bates, et al. teaches “embodiments provide a method, article of manufacture, and apparatus for searching for information on a network of computers using a modified search query. The search query is modified using translation data. The translation data is any information having a predefined association with the search query content. In one aspect, the translation data comprises a location value and a demographic profile value. The location value, demographic profile value, and search content may include any number and types of characters, keywords, symbols, numerals, etc. Upon receiving a search query, a translation program takes step to locate any keywords within the search content, wherein the keywords indicate that translation data is available for modifying the search query. If the search content contains keywords, then steps are taken to modify the query. The modified query may then be executed by a search tool. In some embodiments, the search tool and the translating program are integrated.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,658,432, entitled “Detecting duplicate and near duplicate files,” that issued to Pugh et al., teaches “improved duplicate and near-duplicate detection techniques may assign a number of fingerprints to a given document by (i) extracting parts from the document, (ii) assigning the extracted parts to one or more of a predetermined number of lists, and (iii) generating a fingerprint from each of the populated lists. Two documents may be considered to be near-duplicates if any one of their fingerprints match.”
U.S. Pat. No. 6,397,218, entitled “Network interactive search engine and method,” that issued to Stem et al. teaches “in a search engine server, a method for searching for data in a data network comprising hyperlinked pages comprising the steps of (1) receiving an initial set of network addresses for pages in the data network; (2) receiving a non-negative integer, N, specifying a chain length; (3) receiving a set of at least one search argument comprising search criteria; and (4) performing a search wherein all pages linked to said initial set of addresses by a chain of distance less than or equal to N are examined for compliance with the search criteria, and all pages meeting such criteria are returned as successful objects of the search. According to optional embodiments, the foregoing method can be implemented as a computer readable medium with instructions for performing the above steps, as an application program, or a browser resident at an end user's computer system. It is also possible to implement as a special purpose information handling system.”
U.S. Published Patent Application No. 20050010567, entitled “Method and apparatus for dynamic information connection search engine,” that was published by Barth et al. teaches “a method and apparatus are provided for a dynamic information connection engine. User actions are detected on at least one client system. In response, a determination is made whether the user is searching for supported information. When the user is searching for supported information, information is extracted electronically from third party web sites, direct supplier connections, and intermediate databases. Potential information suppliers are automatically selected in response to the detected user search. Queries are formulated from the user search and transferred to each selected supplier over a network coupling. The queries include a request for information. Responses are received from the suppliers, and the responses are used to generate a result list for the user. The result list includes information and query status information. Further, an electronic link may be provided to a web site of each supplier from which the information was derived.”
U.S. Published Patent Application No. 20020138479, entitled “Adaptive search engine query,” that was published by Lee et al. teaches “embodiments provide a method, article of manufacture, and apparatus for searching for information on a network of computers using a modified search query. The search query is modified using translation data. The translation data is any information having a predefined association with the search query content. In one aspect, the translation data comprises a location value and a demographic profile value. The location value, demographic profile value, and search content may include any number and types of characters, keywords, symbols, numerals, etc. Upon receiving a search query, a translation program takes step to locate any keywords within the search content, wherein the keywords indicate that translation data is available for modifying the search query. If the search content contains keywords, then steps are taken to modify the query. The modified query may then be executed by a search tool. In some embodiments, the search tool and the translating program are integrated.”
However, none of these solutions solve all of the problems associated with managing information items retrieved from search engines, electronic auctions and other sources. Thus, it is desirable to provide method and system for eliminating previously viewed electronic information from subsequent display. The eliminated electronic information should be eliminated across computer or logins.